Family, Rock Climbing, Training, Public Speaking and Life.

Rest Week(s)

Having a training plan and listening to your body are two very important things to pay attention to while focusing on a goal. I currently am on a rest week which will ultimately turn into 3 consecutive weeks of rest. That being said I am completing a cycle early due to fatigue and muscle and joint soreness. I believe that due to my busy schedule of work, family life and training I have been unable to eat enough food and get enough rest on a daily basis. This loss has been making me feel consistently over tired and preventing recovery. As I have been focusing on my big goal (a spring break big wall first free ascent) I have neglected my body and it’s warning system. A little soreness and fatigue is normal as long as the recovery is there. When you are not recovering and instead feeling physically down every day all day then you need to step in and rest, eat and catch up. I am catching up right now no matter what the cost to my climbing. Overall health is more important than a rock.

Here is a nice ab exercise that you can do. It can be tougher than you think..

One more thing to consider while on a rest period. First and foremost, relax. But once you feel good again (however long that takes hopefully in a couple days) you can and should be doing some other type of exercise to compliment your climbing. Perhaps swimming or biking or running are things you could be doing to keep cardio fitness and your sanity. Right now my compliment is biking and short easy running. So even though these are not directly related to my climbing success, my heart rate won’t hit the red zone when I am maxing on a climb which will keep my overall pump down for those endurance pitches.